[long] Re: Legal traps in open source

Sam Couter sam at couter.dropbear.id.au
Thu Oct 31 13:29:44 EST 2002


Alex Satrapa <grail at goldweb.com.au> wrote:
> Suing someone because coffee is made with boiling water seems to me to
> be like suing a car manufacturer because their engine gets hot.

http://lawandhelp.com/q298-2.htm

The only important bit that I've read elsewhere is the reason *why*
McDonalds keeps their coffee hotter: It lasts longer.

The jury saw McDonalds serving coffee hotter because it saves them money
even if it's more dangerous. Lives/pain versus profit, the greedy
coporation lost this one.

Another fact (also read elsewhere) is that the money awarded to the
woman was reduced by some amount for "contributory negligence", meaning
she's stupid enough to spill hot coffee on herself, she should take some
of the blame.

That bit is mentioned here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A429950

So the story is not as simple as some people like to make out.
-- 
Sam "Eddie" Couter  |  mailto:sam at couter.dropbear.id.au
Debian Developer    |  mailto:eddie at debian.org
                    |  jabber:sam at jabber.topic.com.au
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